[K12OSN] Any LTSP/Linux ideas?

Jomegat jomegat at jomegat.com
Tue Apr 23 13:24:14 UTC 2013


I ran into that a couple of years ago.  I too am a volunteer sysadmin, 
and the only one doing it for our school.  I do not know how to maintain 
a Windows network, and I told them so.  If they wanted to go with 
Windows, they were going to have to find another volunteer - not because 
I hated Windows (which I do) but because I did not possess the necessary 
competence to maintain it.

I also told them the task would be much more difficult:
*Maintain individual workstations+hard drives vs a single server
*Software updates would be N times as much work, where N=number of 
workstations.
*Malware - kids are not great at resisting even the most rudimentary 
social engineering tricks.  "I was the millionth visitor to the website? 
Cool! Click!"  We've never had a single instance of malware at our 
school, except for the teacher's personal Windows laptop.  I asked if 
there was anyone on the school board who had not been hit by malware 
themselves, and there were none.  The argument was that if savvy adults 
such as themselves were unable to thwart malware, what chance did the 
kids have?

In spite of my arguments, they had a consultant come in and price what 
it would cost to switch us out.  It was way more money than we had, and 
I suppose that's what saved the day in the end.  They also realized that 
switching would not give them any advantages or capabilities they did 
not already have for free.

Another thing to consider is that Windows 8 has driven PC sales through 
the floor.  People are abandoning Windows in droves, so why would you 
want to switch to a sinking ship?

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/research-firm-pc-sales-plunge-windows-flops-18926235#.UWX6sRlAv1I

The world is moving away from the desktop and towards the cloud.  THAT 
is the wave of the future, and LTSP has been riding that wave for at 
least 15 years (probably more - I've been using it for 15 years).

I hope this helps.  It's very disconcerting to watch people try to 
disassemble all the free work you've done for them for years.

On 04/18/2013 04:48 AM, Joseph Bishay wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I hope you are all doing well today.
>
> So every few years the issue of "shouldn't we be running a Windows
> network?" pops up.  It very recently came up again and I'm looking for
> help on how to tackle it.  This is the first time it nearly was
> mandated and I'd like to be ready with a response.
>
> This is a school environment with about 60 desktop computers.  The
> question is coming from the administration -- they have been using
> Windows since the 3.11 days and so I believe it's just a matter of
> inertia.  I am also a volunteer and I'm not really sure if I'd like to
> continue as a volunteer if they do switch over -- the administration
> of it would be too much effort I fear.
>
> I'm looking for any stories, presentations, charts/data/graphs, white
> papers, case studies, etc. -- Anything you'd use to convince the
> administration that LTSP is a better choice than Windows / Apple for
> us.
>
> This is a crucial issue so I apologize for cross-posting to the
> different LTSP-based mailing lists.
>
> Thanks very much,
> Joseph
>
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-- 
Jim Thomas (a.k.a. J Omega T) jomegat at jomegat.com
If your knees aren't green by the end of the day,
you ought to seriously re-examine your life. - Calvin




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